The Lion King is one of the most profitable, longest running Broadway musicals around. But if you want an experience that is its own theater entity, that takes inspiration from the movie and then runs with it to wild, unexpected places, you’re not going to consistently find it here. The first 10 minutes of Disney’s Broadway musical, “The Lion King,” are the stuff of theater transcendence.

A perfectly formed giraffe crosses the stage of the Landmark Theater, and you have to work backwards to realize it’s actually a human in costume. An elephant ambles down the aisle, and it is somehow rooted in the earth and simultaneously the stuff of pure, weird imagination.

But every time one of these moments happens and you feel like you’re watching the story of “The Lion King” in a completely new way, the next moment the musical grows timid and hurries back to an exact replica of the source material.

The musical, like the film, follows the arc of the young lion, Simba, whose wise, ruling father, Mufasa is killed by the nefarious Uncle Scar. Scar and his band of hyena followers take over the lands of Pride Rock. Simba is exiled to the jungle where he finds zany friends, Timon and Pumba, and ultimately the courage to return and fight. The rest is Disney history.

The biggest challenge of transitioning this story to stage is the fact that all of the characters are African animals. It could so easily be laughable. But this is where “The Lion King” musical is at its most inspired. Costume designer, Julie Taymor, along with her mask and puppet design partner, Michael Curry, will go down in Broadway legend for what they’ve done.

I’ve never seen a faster standing ovation than I did at the Landmark at the end of “The Lion King.” And it’s well deserved, because this musical is unlike anything you’ve probably ever seen. Its story is solid, because the film’s story is such a classic, well-constructed arc. Elton John and Tim Rice’s music and lyrics, including all of the film’s songs, are also solid and familiar. All of that makes for a very good musical.